Baby Be-bop And The Badassed Bigots II: A Tale Of Two "Christians" and The Hate Group That Isn't There

The Stupidity Just Keeps Getting Better

"Tis a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing."

- The Scottish Play - Wm Shakespeare.

Chapter 3

Does the Christian Civil Liberties Union actually exist?

I've spent the better part of three days through search engines, news bureaus, websites, and blogs. I searched: Baby Be-bop, West Bends, Wisc., Francesca lia Block, Christian Civil Liberties Union, American Christian Liberties Union, Reverend Cleveland Eden. I looked abroad at Britain's The Freethinker (one of the best headlines so far: Fundie fools seek damages for being exposed to ‘vulgar, anti-Christian’ novel) Result: The "Milwaukee branch" of the Christian Civil Liberties Union doesn't seem to exist. Probably because the Christian Civil Liberties Union doesn't seem to exist. The closest I could come:

From Manta (listing of small businesses)

Business Information: This company profile is for the private company American Christian Civil Liberties Union , located in Olathe, KS. American Christian Civil Liberties Union's line of business is individual/family services.
Company Name: American Christian Civil Liberties Union
Address: 915 S Parker St, Olathe, KS 66061-4262
Location Type: Single Location Est.
Annual Sales: $51,000 Est.
# of Employees: 2 Est.
Empl. at Loc.: 2
Year Started: 2005
Contact's Name: West Yourk
Contact's Title: Director
NAICS: Other Individual and Family Services

Then I came upon an article in Galley Cat:

A West Bend reader writes: "First, the CCLU, may be 'local' from a national perspective, but actually is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and consists of four right-wing, fundamentalist Christians who claim they were personally harmed because a copy of 'Baby Be-Bop' is in the West Bend library, 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee.

"Second, the petitions mentioned in the article involved an entirely separate issue being debated in West Bend that the CCLU used to piggyback their likely frivolous lawsuit to draw attention to themselves.

And I found this bit in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

In an interview yesterday, West Bend Library Director Michael Tyree said that of the four men who have filed the lawsuit, only one of them lives in West Bend - and that man doesn't have a library card on file.

Chapter 4

Right-wing radio leaps into the fray.

The culprits in this hilarious farce are Ginny and Jim Maziarka, two local residents with an axe to grind. Besides being homophobes, they also seem to be bibliophobes. Ginny Maziarka has a blog called WISSUP (Wisconsin Speaks Up). It's full of fun things to do in Milwaukee, but it stops short of listing gay bashing as one of them. If you click on one of the items on her sidebar, you'll note that the Maziarkas have enlisted the aid of Miwaukee's radio premier conservative newstalk jock.

When you listen to the podcast of Mark Belling on his WISN newstalk radio show, Standing Up for Milwaukee, you realize that he's bucking for a Glenn Beck/Rush Limbaugh audience - and while he doesn't name Baby Be-bop specifically, he states that the young adult books of West Bend's library are "very lurid" books and that he couldn't read "this filth" on the show.

According to his bio:

Mark is one of the best known local talk show hosts in America. He has been a guest host on America’s most listened to radio program, The Rush Limbaugh Show.

Chapter 5

UPDATE:

From The Advocate:

The plaintiffs want a grand jury to determine whether the book should be declared obscene and whether making it available is a hate crime.

WTF!??! People who would vote against hate crimes legislation want libraries that make available books criticizing Christians to be prosecuted for hate crimes!

A group calling themselves West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries, associated with a national fundamentalist Christian, anti-gay movement called Safe Libraries, wants books containing sexual references moved from the young adult section to the adult section and labels sexually explicit material. They also want more restrictions on the library's access to the Internet, and a link to a list of gay-themed books removed from the Library's Website.

And, true to form, the backlash spawned another group: West Bend Parents for Free Speech.

So there you have the whole mind-boggling mess (with particularly stupid points in red):

• Two concerned right-wing parents attempt to ban or relocate gay young-adult novels at their local library.
• The library refuses to ban or relocate any books.
• The parents pick out one novel which has been out of print for over ten years.
• The commotion catches the attention of a nebulous right-wing group called Christian Civil Liberties Union. The CCLU starts a lawsuit against the library. Coincidentally, the CCLU seems to be made up of the plaintiffs in the suit. The suit demands $120,000 for "compensatory damages" focusing on "emotional" and "mental" distress brought about by the mere presence of the book in the library. Only one of the plaintiffs lives in West Bend, WI. And he does NOT have a library card.
  
• Local support for the parents and the CCLU is garnered through a right-wing radio talk show host.
• Further commotion ensues when the CCLU announces that the suit will also specify that the presence of the book constitutes a hate crime.
• The backlash spawns: a parent's free speech group; support for the library, especially from the American Library Association; notoriety on internet blogs and some mainstream media; the book's award-winning being slated to write the book's screenplay for MTV.

So, the underlying question brought out by all of this:

Just how stupid can Christofascists get?

Just a thought.

(Jump to Epilogue)